What do you think about Jake's parents?
Somehow I liked them a lot. I think they have never understood Jake but I think they loved him a lot but they weren't able to show him their feelings.
I wish we knew more about Jake's mother.
I thought his dad was a total jerk, and his mother was too self-absorbed. I was really rooting for Jake to
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Originally Posted by
Daghain
I thought his dad was a total jerk, and his mother was too self-absorbed. I was really rooting for Jake to
ditto
I know very well that they weren't good parents.. but still I felt sorry for them.
You have a far bigger heart than I. Letti. That's why I like you. :)
Oh no... I don't think so but thank you for your kind words.
I just see my parents in them I think... I mean I was quite a strange kid myself and they didn't really understand me. They tried their best and they gave me so much but they never knew me. I love and I respect them a lot and now I know I should have told them a lot of things I shouldn't have been so closed I didn't dare to talk about... and damn I was a kid. They should have found the way to me.
But I think I have the best parents all over the world but they are humans as well with lots of mistakes.
Maybe that's why I felt sorry for Jake's parents. I don't know.
I loathed Jake's parents. I felt like King did too. Jake was the product of two selfish, self-absorbed people who didn't give a good god-damn about their child. Luckily they were rich, so they could hire someone to care.
As for him being better off with Roland, I suppose, maybe, but he was still an afterthought...the tower was more important to Roland than Jake.
I almost think that's why Jake had Oy. He had to have someone who gave him unconditional love, and that's the void Oy help fill. He knew Jake needed that.
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Originally Posted by
Jean
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Originally Posted by
Daghain
I thought his dad was a total jerk, and his mother was too self-absorbed. I was really rooting for Jake to
ditto
Double ditto and three quarters..
Yep, they were total self obsessed arses and I think after Jake's disappearance they would easily let their sorrow become self pity and thus give themselves (in their own minds) more justification for drinking, snorting and sleeping around.
For your pov Letti, I'd agree that they probably had unhappy lives themselves to feel unable and unaware of how to support and nuture their own child, and thats always sad.
Agreed Darkthoughts, I would think they would just delve deeper into depression and use more drugs as a result.
XIX
Sure thing Chassit - King really has a knack of observing that side of life in his books.
There is a problem when your house keeper knows whats going on in your kids life more then you do. His da had way to many problems and was a workaholic but with his job i wanted to know who keeps a Kruger in a desk? and as for his mum shes pliable she bends to the stronger so shes praticlly useless for anything
Reminded me of mine. Except we were broke.
I hope Black 13 sent Jake's parents into eternal todash. Hated them.
The 2 characters were well used by King in the Book.
Typical of a certain kind of parent in real life nowadays. They had too much happening in their own lives to be seriously interested in Jake's day-to-day life.
But yes, there were certainly indications that they loved him, in their own way, and were concerned about him. They were just too inneffective to do anything meaningful about it.
My overall feelings for them & their loss of jake?
Indifference, I guess...
Count me into the "despised them" camp. I've said before that Jake Chambers is possibly my fav fictional character, certainly my fav character in DT. A good deal of that is because I see a lot of my own childhood in Jake's, with one exception, I had great parents. As far as the strangeness and the loneliness and the lack of real friends, that seemed very familiar to me, but the parents, that's where I really felt terribly for Jake. I don't doubt that Jake's parents did love him on some level, but they'd have been wise to make sure he knew that they did. I didn't talk to my parents a lot when I was his age but I always knew if I absolutely had to, I could and I didn't have to fear them as Jake did his father.
Sadly this is what some people whould actually do.....pathetic isnt it?
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Originally Posted by
Darkthoughts
Yep, they were total self obsessed arses and I think after Jake's disappearance they would easily let their sorrow become self pity and thus give themselves (in their own minds) more justification for drinking, snorting and sleeping around.
For your pov Letti, I'd agree that they probably had unhappy lives themselves to feel unable and unaware of how to support and nuture their own child, and thats always sad.
Its funny, because I can usually identify with parents of all shapes and sizes.
I remember reading these two and thinking there was no way I could identify with any part of either of them.
they always seemed to me a little exaggerated as characters. As if Mr.King decided to make his own task easier, not making Jake face the horrible choice between the world behind the door and normal parents.
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Originally Posted by
Jean
they always seemed to me a little exaggerated as characters. As if Mr.King decided to make his own task easier, not making Jake face the horrible choice between the world behind the door and normal parents.
I must disagree, Jean.
First of all I don't think that King is that type of author who chooses the easier way... no, I don't think so. He writes what he must write. Even if it made Jake's choice easier (I am not sure about it at all) that's how it had to be.
- Anyway if you look at the psychological part of it usually the kids who are treated badly by their parents (even if they are hit or even worse) love and are hooked on their parents much more than the well-treated ones. It's a fact. -
Secondly, what do you mean by normal parents?? Most of the parents (if not all) make lots of mistakes and many of them are big. I do love my parents and I respect them but when I look back... they could make horrible things.
So for me Jake's parents are absolutely normal. I might live in a darker world but they are. They didn't hit him to coma they gave him food they loved him but they couldn't show it... so in my eyes they weren't mosters at all and they were absolutely normal. Not good. Not at all. But normal.
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Originally Posted by
Letti
Anyway if you look at the psychological part of it usually the kids who are treated badly by their parents (even if they are hit or even worse) love and are hooked on their parents much more than the well-treated ones. It's a fact. -
I wouldn't say deprived/abused kids love their parents more than well treated kids, but I'm sure they crave normal love more, as a result of not receiving it.
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So for me Jake's parents are absolutely normal. I might live in a darker world but they are. They didn't hit him to coma they gave him food they loved him but they couldn't show it... so in my eyes they weren't mosters at all and they were absolutely normal. Not good. Not at all. But normal.
I see what you're saying, sure they didn't physically abuse him, but they neglected him emotionally. I don't think they were monsters either, but they weren't normal parents in my eyes, they were too self involved - I consider normal to be a parent who was able to put his/her child's needs before that of their own the majority of the time.
I don't think normal is perhaps the best word, its very PC but my Dad and his other social worker colleagues use the term "good enough parent" instead of normal and abnormal - I guess it casts less aspersions, but I think the PC term is, for once, better in this context :)
Dark, that's a good distinction with the PC thing.
I certainly would not call Jakes parents 'normal' either - it just would'nt ring true for me - but 'good enough' ? Maybe...
I see where Letti's coming from though - these 2 did not wrong Jake in any way by intent, but purely by neglect (not any physical neglect no, but emotional yes). They were not 'bad' parents, certainly not 'great' ones, and for me they probably fall a bit short of 'good' too.
Lisa & Brian, I am with you both. "Normal" can be a bit subjective. Neglectful and self-absorbed would be accurate descriptors. Those are not qualities that make for good parents, but I agree that they never intentionally hurt Jake. I think they were a bit too self-absorbed to realize they were doing anything "wrong."
Yes, for me they were people that probably had a child because it was part of what they thought you should do, rather than considering if they actually wanted to, or if they had the time and emotional stability it takes to be a parent.
I agree completely. Jake was more of an accessory than a human being to them.